Recent Comments

Answer Tips

Pinger

30 September 2010

According to this (Hebrew) article, Syrian female blogger Tal El-Melouhy died in jail. Tal El-Melouhy was a pro-Palestinian blogger, criticising the French initiative for peace between Israel and Syria.

A missing 19-year-old Syrian blogger, Tal El- Melouhy, is being held in a prison near the capital Damascus on espionage charges, local media outlets reported Tuesday. El-Melouhy is a detainee at Duma women's prison, some 20 kilometres north-west of the city, according to the dp-news website. El-Melouhy's family had been unable to confirm her whereabouts since she went missing 10 months ago, but they suspected that she had been detained by Syrian authorities.

29 September 2010

Ami Isseroff has written an article that may (with your help) break the conspiracy of silence. It's important enough to be copied in its entirety here.

I am now going to break the silence about what are very probably egregious human rights violations in Palestine.But first, you must excuse these personal and intimate questions: Are you seeking dialog and solidarity with the oppressed Palestinians? Are you European or American, female, between the ages of 17 and 40? Uh, er, are you a virgin? (I did warn you that this is going to get personal and intimate).

If you are looking for an adventure of a new and different kind, then you should probably head for the Palestinian territories, where you can do a real service to the oppressed Palestinians and at the same time get first hand experience of solidarity and intimate dialog with Palestinian Arabs, who, it seems, rape American and European female activists.

“Omar Aladdin, who had been arrested three months ago over suspicions he had attempted to rape the U.S. citizen, was subsequently released after agreeing to apologize to the young woman. However, Haaretz had learned that representatives of both the popular protest movement and the PA have since applied pressure on the American peace activist as to prevent her from making the story public.

It was not the only incident. An undated article in Hebrew, by Roni Aloni Sedovnik reported on Betrayal by the left of female peace activists who were sexually assaulted. Aloni-Sedovnik reported an additional case, the ‘severe sexual assault’ of an Israeli peace activist at Sheikh Jarrah. The victim tried to complain, but this time it was Israeli peace activists who shut her up:

“However, after heavy and unfair pressure from the organizers of the Sheikh Jarrah protest, she withdrew her complaint.

“As if that is not enough to make one appalled at the hypocritical morality and loss of direction, the situation became more serious recently, when the activists organizing the the demonstrations in Bil’in and Sheikh Jarah asked female demonstrators to wear ‘modest dress’ according to the code accepted in Arab villages: Hijab, Burqa or other head covering…

“How did we not hear about this? After all, the phenomenon is known in a broad group of peace activists, so what can we learn from the hushing up of this topic by the media?…

‘Peace’ groups such as Ir Amim that are demonstrating in Sheikh Jarrah and Bilin get U.S. tax deductible donations through the NIF, which supposedly advances ‘women’s rights’ and ‘democracy.’The two cases are apparently only the tip of the iceberg.Yehudah Belo wrote, under the dramatic headline, Female leftist activists are raped day after day, night after night about the alleged rape of Scandinavian girls:

“I know of such rape cases from women who are not Jewish: a female European leftist activist, a female Red Cross volunteer and a young Arab woman from Yafo. I met the three of them during reserve service. I met with each of them afterwards… they told me what happens there, in the Palestinian villages, far from any observing eye.”“It is not a matter of rape to satisfy lust. They are done systematically in order to impregnate the girl, and then to marry her, after she converts to Islam. Of course, we know about this method from girls who underwent a similar process inside Israel and escaped to Europe, but it is hard to escape from the [Palestinian] territories. Sometimes these women, some of whom are already older women, are not allowed to leave their homes unaccompanied, in order to prevent their escape. If someone doubts my words…please, check the statistics for entries and departures, and you will discover that a large portion of female leftist activists did not leave the country. Everyone knows about it, but nobody dares to talk about it…“I ran into a few Norwegian girls married to Palestinians. They are not happy. Their lives were destroyed. Their families have broken off contact with them. They have no place to return to. They are deep in the raising of children and wish to die. I assume there are women in that situation in their own countries and in Israel too. Not everyone is happy, but one might think that a person who grew up in Oslo will have trouble adjusting to life in the refugee camps. She is no longer allowed to be free, to fly about the world as she wishes, or even to be a leftist activist.

Belo pleaded with Israeli womens’ and leftist organizations to help, but so far, none has done so.The cause was also taken up by Israeli blogger Nimrod Avissar, in a Hebrew article called Thunderous Silence.These Israeli reporters and bloggers do not all fit the stereotype of right wing settler supporters. Haaretz generally is sympathetic to Palestinians and so is their reporter and analyst Avi Issacharoff. Nimrod Avissar lives in Ramat Gan, not in a settlement. The reports cannot be dismissed. When rumors about Israeli ‘war crimes’ and illegal organ transplants surfaced, they were plastered all over respected journals such as the New York Times and Time magazine, as well as Scandinavian journals, though there was probably not a word of truth to them. Judge Richard Goldstone wrote thousands of pages and made the gravest accusations based on flimsier evidence, causing an upheaval in international justice as well as media coverage. But almost nothing at all has been published in international media about these rapes. No activists took up the cause of these poor women. There were two articles about the rape issue in a respectable journal, but they were ignored. Additional material accumulated, but that too was ignored.Most belatedly, after several months, the matter was exposed in Israel National News in an article by Gil Ronen in English, called Arabs Harass Female ‘Peace’ Activists; Left Silences Victims.The problem, however, is not to find the culprits for the silence, but to break the silence. Perhaps ‘leftists’ or Palestinians can be blamed for suppressing these stories, but nothing prevents others from writing about them, as nothing prevented anyone from writing about Carlos Chavez, the Ecuadoran volunteer killed by the Hamas, or Angelo Frumartino, the Italian “peace” activist who came to help the Palestinians and was killed by Palestinian terrorists. Nothing prevented anyone from writing, but almost nobody wrote it seems. A lone blogger noted the attempted rape of the American activist, reported in Haaretz. It is fruitless to blame others for our own apathy and incompetence. It seems that the mythical Zionist ‘PR’ machine is just that:a myth. If nobody knows these stories, but everyone knows who Rachel Corrie is and who Muhamad al Dura is, we have only ourselves to blame.

Over the years, I have heard plenty of stories, not just about Israeli or European women being raped, but about Arab Christian girls being raped, sometimes with the cooperation of, or on the initiative of, the Fatah Police. I have also seen those earnest Scandinavian Lutheran girls, recruited for the causes of ‘peace’ and dialog,’ standing in a room full of Palestinian young men. What could they have in common?? Why were there no Scandinavian young men? Draw your own conclusions. If it was ‘dialog’ and ‘solidarity’ that they sought, they came to the right place, it seems. I have also seen ominous warnings about ‘modest dress.’Don’t the charges at least merit further investigation and publicity? After all, if the same charges were leveled at Israelis, there would be a barrage of publicity, regardless of whether they had any truth to them or not. There are numerous specious allegations that Israeli soldiers raped Palestinians. There was even a ‘study’ that ‘proved’ that Israeli soldiers (including the non-Jewish ones) do not rape Palestinians because IDF soldiers are racists.Surely it is time to break the silence? Won’t Women in Black or Code Pink or perhaps Gila Svirsky’s group (CWP – Coalition of women for Peace) organize a tumultuous demonstration demanding an international investigation?? It is understandable if they keep mum about these stories. But where is the army of Zionist bloggers and journalists who are supposed to publicize these issues? Where are the organizations who take money to supposedly defend Israel? Why is everyone silent??

At least there should be an investigation. Surely, all progressive people will welcome an investigation into the status of women in the West Bank, which is no doubt commendable in every way..Won’t someone publicize this cause? Won’t someone speak out about this injustice? Won’t someone tour campuses in the United States and Scandinavia to warn the innocents before it is too late?? Won’t someone come forward and break the silence??

I have slavishly copied the headline of that article. The article in question busily exposes what they call "series of errors at national carrier".

A passenger with a ticket for an El Al flight to Los Angeles mistakenly boarded a flight to New York at Ben-Gurion International Airport, and neither he nor the crew discovered the mix-up until the plane had landed in the United States.

However, they skip what would seem to be the main problem: isn't it advisable to set up a list of minimal requirements for a person who requests a passport? Let alone one who orders a ticket?

28 September 2010

Criticism from one side and adoration from another (admittedly, far smaller and dwindling as time goes) - this is all a matter of record by now, and I will not be going into the rights or wrongs of ending the freeze.

One thing, however, is absolutely clear: no one could blame Bibi in being prepared to the slightest degree for the current situation.

I freely confess (not for the first time, too) in being ignorant on many aspects of US politics, history and whatnot. This article only added to my state of general confusion. Not going into all the names of people and political groups mentioned in the article, I would like to clarify only one question related to this picture:

The uniforms on these New Black Panthers folks: aren't they brown rather than black? Or am I getting color blind on top of all them other ailments?

TEHRAN - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad says U.S. President Barack Obama’s response to his comments about the 9/11 incidents was amateurish.

A bit of background:

Ahmadinejad had said that most people believe the U.S. government was behind the 9/11 attacks.

In an interview with BBC Persian Television on Friday, Obama described the Iranian president’s recent remarks on the 9/11 incidents as “hateful” and “offensive”.

After reading the whole Tehran Times article, I have to say that Mahmoud the Mad doesn't display any special enmity towards his opponent. It rather reads like a professional opinion of one standup comedian about another.

Yeah, Obama still doesn't match up to the best ones in shoveling BS...

And, to be positive and to stress the common instead of the dividing, here is an illustration of the whole issue:

ISRAEL has attacked a UN committee that found it engaged in "wilful killing and torture" when its soldiers boarded a flotilla bound for Gaza in May.

This is the way the article in The Australian starts - by copying a rather standard formula to be found in all media these days. Anyone can come to his/her own conclusion by simply watching this:

But Australian went one step farther, adding another story and another picture:

The capture says:

Palestinians attack the car of a Jewish settlement security guard, who later shot one of the assailants. Picture: Getty Images Source: The Australian

Now, my dear and objective (of course) reader: imagine yourself being the driver of this car. Assume that you don't have a gun. What do you do? Well, you die. Now suppose that you do have a gun? What do you do? Order a book on Geneva convention or shoot?

The good folks of The Australian certainly didn't miss the point of the picture. They also didn't miss the parallel between the story this picture tells and the story of Mavi Marmara as told in the clip above.

Did you?

In related news: BBC, after posting a relatively objective documentary on the story of Mavi Marmara, apparently have decided that they have fulfilled their quota of objectivity for 2010. Details by Robin Shepherd.

Ebra is a revolutionary new product that, while unable to prevent Chernobyl, will make your presence in the place more pleasurable.

Caught in a disaster? You'd better hope you're wearing the Emergency Bra. Simply unsnap the bright red bra, separate the cups, and slip it over your head -- one cup for you, and one for your friend.

As for situation Ebra places us (the men) in: a lonely man is definitely a sitting duck for a terrorist, a volcano, a nuclear facility going... nuclear or another calamity of natural or human origins. So, first of all, we should make sure not to be lonely. As the Ebra site says:

The goal of any emergency respiratory device is to achieve tight fixation and full coverage.

Thankfully, most of the healthy men are born with the necessary fixation. What is left - to find a female partner that uses an Ebra of sufficient size - for full coverage.

And - voila!

P.S. I hope that, while working on the Ebra, the inventor also resolved the issue of a quick (emergency) release button. Men are demanding this one for almost a millennium...

24 September 2010

Not funny at all. When the jackbooted thugs from the black helicopter have their disgusting unnatural way with poor Alex, helplessly bent over his favorite rose bush, remember where you have heard the whole story first...

I only hope that Alex will choose a lipstick that goes with the roses.

23 September 2010

I have written the previous post Professor Emeritus Moshé Machover, logic and politics as a result of being surprised by a senseless text. Well, actually, by the fact that this senseless text comes from a person who is supposed to have very few peers where logic is concerned.

Being a gift that keeps giving, Professor Emeritus displays this to start with:

But suicide bombing – however abhorrent – is clearly not a cowardly act. In some limited sense – which in no way implies moral approval! – it may even be regarded as heroic.

Quite startling , but not really original. Anyway, it was only an appetizer, here comes the main dish:

But it is important to point out the positive attitude to an extreme act of this sort in the Judeo-Christian tradition. I am referring to the story about Samson in the biblical Book of Judges.

Do you already experience that sick feeling in the pit of your stomach? You should. Because we are getting close to where it really stinks:

Samson, who terrorized the Philistines, was captured by them (using his lover Delilah as honey-trap, in a ruse reminiscent of the capture of the nuclear whistle-blower Mordechai Vanunu using an attractive Mossad agent).

Leave the contents of the parentheses for later. Let's also skip the lengthy quote (Judges XVI, 21-30) and go straight to the conclusion:

This story of the suicidal killing of thousands of men and women, most of them no doubt innocent, by the blinded and humiliated Samson, is taught approvingly to present-day Israeli children. The protagonist is conventionally referred to as “Samson the Hero” (Shimshon Haggibor).

Now, using the mechanism of derivation from unclear or even non-existing texts, perfected by Professor Emeritus, you should have no trouble whatsoever to conclude that, as it says in the title of this post, Zionists invented suicide bombers. Case closed.

So, you can easily see that, precisely like Samson, hundreds and even thousands of Israeli children are strapping on explosive belts and happily, singing the Haganah/Palmach songs, run around various world capitals, randomly blowing self up in the midst of innocent citizenry.

No? They don't? And what: Samson didn't have an explosive belt? He didn't blow self up? Oh, so he was tied to a column or two... and what do you intend to prove by all these useless details that don't contribute anything of value to the cause?

Bite me, in short. And now, with your leave, let's go back to the material in parentheses: so Samson was captured by the Philistines (using his lover Delilah as honey-trap, in a ruse reminiscent of the capture of the nuclear whistle-blower Mordechai Vanunu using an attractive Mossad agent).

This stuff is likely to make one mad, so try to go slowly and carefully there, it's a veritable minefield of logic. First of all, Philistines must be the good guys, since they were against this Zionist suicide bomber Samson, right? Since they've used his [Samson's] lover Delilah as honey-trap, and because we know they were righteous guys, honey-trapping one Samson was a good deed. Am I right or am I right?

But then, Professor Emeritus Moshé Machover adds: "in a ruse reminiscent of the capture of the nuclear whistle-blower Mordechai Vanunu using an attractive Mossad agent". Which should mean that Mossad are also righteous guys, since they have used the same ruse as them Philistines and caught this baddie Vanunu.

Yeah, but isn't this Vanunu character a good bloke, him being against Zionists just like the Philistines? And how come Mossad became good guys, when we all know that they are a running lackey dog and all that jazz?

And what is, for crying out loud, "an attractive Mossad agent"? Don't we all know that these Zionist agents are ugly slappers good for cat food only?

I don't think any more of that is needed to break the logic neck of your camel. Do you?

20 September 2010

Aircraft manufacturer Airbus has theorized a see-through passenger plane for the future, one with a completely transparent fuselage. In this concept craft, the push of a button by the captain would a send an electrical pulse through a high-tech ceramic skin -- making the main body of the plane see-through. The extraordinary design would allow travelers to look down on cities and landscapes thousands of feet below or gaze up at the heavens, giving them the sensation of floating unassisted through the sky.

The sheer terror of having the floor and the walls disappear at an altitude of 12 km... what can I say: they better have the barf bags back pronto!

I like much better the next idea:

The report includes ... solutions for overcongestion in the air, such as pre-seating passengers in pods that are then loaded onto the plane when it is ready.

I have always dreamed about doing my air travels unconscious in the A Team's Mr. T style. If the airline wouldn't mind splurging on injecting or gassing me to insensitive state, I wouldn't mind the size of the pod and the way they stack 'em. Like this, to use one example:

So it's settled, I guess - to everyone's satisfaction. The only problem that bothers me: if up till now we had to rescue our bags from Murmansk* after a good percentage of the flights, now we'll find ourselves in Murmansk. Imagine waking up, groggy, bleary and geared for +30 of Tenerife - in a place where -30 us considered a lucky day... and they lost that sticker with the barcode from your pod...

(*) Where, according to the late and great Douglas Adams, most of the luggage usually ends up.

The US-sponsored Israeli-Palestinian peace talks and Israeli policy seek to exclude residents of the Gaza Strip.

One can easily imagine Gazans, desperate for peace talks, knocking on the locked gates of the peace talks castle... but Laila, who is not too clever and shows herself a consistently poor propagandist, destroys this effect immediately:

Ask any resident of Gaza what their thoughts are on the US-sponsored "direct talks" between Israel and Mahmoud Abbas's Ramallah government, and you're likely to hear one of three responses:

1) Surely, you jest;

2) Something's rotten in Ramallah;

3) Negotiations?

Are you still under the illusion that Gazans want to take part in the peace talks? If you still are, Gazansmadesure that their position on the peace talks is expressed in a clear and unequivocal manner.

And then, in the time honored tradition, Laila throws in the usual:

Though Israeli disengaged from Gaza in 2005, access and movement of goods and people in Gaza as well as airspace, sea space and population registration remain under Israeli control – all a critical part of any discussion on Palestinian statehood.

Too bad. This oft-repeated half-lie demands a repeat quiz from an old post of mine.

To ease the burden of answering these questions, multiple options are provided.

When IDF left Gaza strip, the purpose of this was:

1. To ensure Zionist control of the strip2. To blockade 1.5 million of Gazans3. To let Gazans manage their own lives and to become good neighbors4. To free some military resources for upcoming war with Andorra

The airport built in Gaza strip was later destroyed by IDF because of:

1. Differences of opinion on the airport architecture2. A need to create a new football field in the place3. Continuing attacks on Israel from Gaza strip4. Arafat piloting his plane in a way that clashed with FAA regulations

The plans for a seaport in the Gaza strip were scrapped because of:

1. Objections of environmental lobby in Gaza2. Overabundance of jellyfish in the area3. Growing use of the sea routes by Gazans to smuggle weapons4. The area being too shallow for 6th fleet ships to anchor

The further deterioration of the situation in Gaza was caused by:

1. Bird flu2. Hamas ascendance to power and sharp increase in flying objects crossing the border with Israel3. Disagreements between Hamas and Israel on finer points of international cuisine (humus)

The closing of the border crossings between Gaza and Israel was caused by:

1. Insufficient manpower for management of the crossings2. Continuing attacks over the border, including attacks on the crossings themselves3. Lack of interest for employment in Israel on the side of Gazans4. Clash between Muslim and Jewish religious holidays

The thousand of flying objects mentioned above are:

1. Doves, released by uncounted peace groups in Gaza to symbolize their desire for peace2. Postcards from Gazan kids to the Israeli kids3. A novel way to expedite the exchange of information between parties4. Qassam rockets launched to kill Israeli citizens indiscriminately

Well, whatever this grammatically incorrect "six-figure sum" expression means, when you count the digits in the 3,000.00 presentation of the amount claimed by the Foreign Ministry, you get your six "figures". And it figures.

14 September 2010

As some people noticed via the comments here and otherwise, I got me my personal 9/11 - of a kind.

Cannot say now that the sign wasn't on the wall. But still, the direction from which the hit came was kind of unfair. As an all around fair borrower/employer, I have abused the borrowed/employed bits of my body equally. With some advantages given to the heart, which at the end of the day decided to behave like an ingrate. So be it.

It is a new and uncharted territory for me, so it will take some time to get used to it and to learn the ways to smuggle some A, T (skip the F for now) past the gendarmes that patrol its roads. But no worries, we'll get there yet...

And meanwhile, my heartfelt thanks to all who wished me well on this occasion - in the comments and otherwise.

The only thing that bothers me a bit is the implementation of this discovery. Seeing as how the maggots are used alive in some medical establishments (it's really a green and environment-friendly way, besides you can reuse the maggots), I wonder whether our health insurance companies in cahoots with the doctors will resort to a similar way with the new little helpers:

What is your weight, sir? 125 kg? Let me see... here it goes: five roaches three times a day and mind you - only on empty stomach. Yes, and lick a frog four time a day. Please return the frog to the pharmacy after you get better. Or ask your surviving relative to...

10 September 2010

I have stumbled on a new year gift of a kind in the Guardian. It's a letter by professor Emeritus Moshé Machover, grandly titled "Israel, Jews and the peace process". The letter is relatively short and is worth reading in its entirety.

In his analysis ('It's time to get to work': 17 years after Oslo, Clinton takes on the Middle East challenge, 3 September), Ian Black describes Netanyahu as demanding that Abbas recognise Israel "as a Jewish state".

However, according to Chris McGreal's report on the facing page ('Together we can lead people to a future that will end conflict', 3 September), what Netanyahu actually demanded from the Palestinians was recognition of "Israel as the nation state of the Jewish people". The difference is significant. Netanyahu is a Jewish prime minister, but he is certainly not the prime minister of the Jewish people, as he implicitly claims.

A state defined by ethnic religion is bad enough; but what Netanyahu's actual demand amounts to is legitimation of Zionism, and the "right" of Israel to speak and act for an alleged Jewish "nation" consisting of Jews everywhere, including the UK.

I wold like to address first the main points of that letter. Since prof. Machover is expert in mathematical logic, one would expect him to be respectful to logic in general. But he goes illogical immediately, starting with his first statement - "Netanyahu is a Jewish prime minister". Unless prof. Machover means Netanyahu's Jewishness (which should be, but obviously isn't irrelevant to professor), Netanyahu is a PM of a state that includes about 1.5 million Arabs, Druze, Bedouin, Bahai and other minorities*. For good or otherwise, he is a legally elected PM of all people.

Then "but he is certainly not the prime minister of the Jewish people, as he implicitly claims". "Implicitly" means "Without ever expressing so clearly". It obviously took the combined talents of "mathematician, philosopher, and socialist activist" to derive something that far reaching. Sheer math logic wouldn't suffice for that feat. And, while I am far from being Bibi's fan, even Bibi doesn't pretend on the title of King of All Jews.

That "All" is especially significant, since prof. Machover uses the regular anti-Zionist strawman, where various Israeli VIP's are accused in trying to speak for all Jews. Now the state of Israel is being blamed for trying to be a state for all Jews. I can already see how grim-looking British immigration officials are dragging kicking and screaming prof. Machover to the El-Al plane warming up its engines on the tarmac. Doesn't bear imagining, I can tell you already...

But I digress. The national state of the Jews will hardly care to forcefully detach prof. Machover from his beloved United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, an Anglican Church monarchy with 14 fourteen overseas territories**... You may want to say that I am abusing a formal definition of otherwise enlightened democracy - but the definition Bibi is using is also formal, for the reason mentioned above (*).

"Netanyahu's actual demand amounts to is legitimation of Zionism". Zionism and its legitimation are anathema to prof. Machover, who spend most of his conscious life fighting Zionism. But, in my humble, Zionism doesn't require (or, indeed, need) legitimation. At least no more than Communist Party of Israel or Matzpen. It's a political movement.

"the "right" of Israel to speak and act for an alleged Jewish "nation" consisting of Jews everywhere, including the UK". That's another "discovery" of an "implicit" meaning. And another strawman. Becomes quite boring after a time.

To conclude: a short letter, chock-full of illogical claims, blames and political activism.

A short reminder about prof. Machover's political pedigree: after a stint in Israeli Communist Party, Machover broke with it for the usual ideological reasons (don't they all?) and established a more radical in many ways Matzpen (nowadays largely moribund). Matzpen gave birth to several new rabidly anti-Israeli / anti-Zionist characters, the more notorious among them Ehud (Udi) Adiv, the "celebrated" Sabra Spy. Probably feeling the hot breath of Shin Bet on his neck, Machover lives and operates in Great Britain since 1968.

09 September 2010

One of the Western enlightenment's aspects that never fails to astonish me is how quickly immigrants from the less democratic (it's an understatement for you) places catch up with the awesome power of the Western legal system.

A right wing blogger Marginalized Action Dinosaur (MAD for short) took umbrage with an 8 points document that one Dr. Asad Raza published on his site notcanada.com. Don't try to find the links, since good Dr. Raza has found a willing legal beagle who promptly threatened the MAD's blog provider Bluehost. Interesting that, while Dr. Raza's text was available to all on the Internet, Bluehost and, as a result, MAD were accused of "copying personal and private information from the doctor's website". The second step taken by the doctor was to ensure that the "personal and private" information is eliminated, by erasing that notcanada site and with it all traces of that site on other places, including the famous Wayback Machine.

All this may sound absurd, but for now, MAD's blog is shut down by Bluehost who promptly chickened out, obviously unwilling to stand by their user and by some obscure freedom of speech issue.

You may want to know what is that 8-points document about. And how the story ends. About the former, look here and here. And here too.

As for the latter: help MAD by linking to his (temporarily, I hope) muzzled site, even if you don't agree with his politics. And spread this story, please.

Detectives investigating the murder of Gareth Williams, the British MI6 spy, are seeking a young Mediterranean couple seen at his block of flats in London.

I think that no sensible man (or woman) needs more pointers. And if you consider that the victim was "found naked, zipped and padlocked into a bag in his bath" and that "Police are working on the assumption that Mr Williams was either smothered or poisoned"... Surely we all understand that he was also repeatedly stubbed, electrocuted and tickled to full asphyxiation on top of it, which details the Plod saved for later, of course.

I hope I don't need to draw the picture for you? Uzi Mahnaimi of the Sunday Times will be only too happy to tell the rest. Starting with that dilapidated house on the outskirts of Tel Aviv, where two middle-aged officers of Mossad (in civilian garb) are drinking the government issue coffee and looking at the map of London...

But you know, the explanation of this murder could be much more mundane. In the same article linked above:

07 September 2010

In a small step for a scientist, but a giant leap for health care, the results of this research will force us all to move to the brave new world of XXI century.

Controlling only for age and gender, compared to moderate drinkers, abstainers had a more than 2 times increased mortality risk, heavy drinkers had 70% increased risk, and light drinkers had 23% increased risk. A model controlling for former problem drinking status, existing health problems, and key sociodemographic and social-behavioral factors, as well as for age and gender, substantially reduced the mortality effect for abstainers compared to moderate drinkers. However, even after adjusting for all covariates, abstainers and heavy drinkers continued to show increased mortality risks of 51 and 45%, respectively, compared to moderate drinkers.

If the above looked somewhat complicated to you, here it comes in another arrangement:

The 1,824 participants were followed for 20 years.... Just over 69% of the abstainers died during the 20 years, 60% of the heavy drinkers died and only 41% of moderate drinkers died.

I hope that by now the penny dropped. If not, you might be a conscientious abstainer and should visit your doctor as soon as possible to discuss the drink that is most suited to your needs. Meanwhile, here comes a picture of my favorite drink:

He offered to hand over sensitive computer files containing information about intelligence collection and MI6 staff lists to agents from the Netherlands, the Old Bailey heard. They at first thought it was a hoax but later tipped off their UK counterparts and Houghton was arrested after arranging a meeting at a London hotel in March.

No market study, no pricing analysis, and the most ridiculous thing, of course - the choice of the client. What, there aren't enough real bad guys in the world ready to snap the files? And the Dutch succeeded to get him down to £900,000!

The judge said he did not know whether it was true, as Houghton claimed, that he was hearing voices that told him to do it but said he was a "strange young man".

I guess if I had me some MI6 files I would be hearing voices too, pushing me to sell the files as soon as possible, and to the highest bidder.

But I think I know where I can put my mitts on the London phone book...

As Muscovites suffer record high temperatures this summer, a Russian political scientist has claimed the United States may be using climate-change weapons to alter the temperatures and crop yields of Russia and other Central Asian countries....In the article, Areshev voiced suspicions about the High-Frequency Active Aural Research Program (HAARP), funded by the U.S. Defense Department and the University of Alaska.

05 September 2010

Mohamed Abu Muailek is a 25-year-old Palestinian, believes that Palestinians should seek co-existence with Israel. Mohamed is in jail and facing potential execution by Hamas. Once a militant, he is now a strong advocate of peaceful coexistence.

Before you read the update: please don't hesitate to join this Facebook group. Now to the news:

Subject: update from Yasser (Mohamed's brother):

The latest small victory Mohammed's lawyer managed to gain was the proof that he didn't transmit any coordinations that could have helped Israel locate, and kill, members of Hamas during the war in Gaza (early 2009). A computer expert who testified at his court hearing last month confirmed that the Google-Earth software the Hamas-prosecutor claims Mohammed used to transmit the coordinations from was installed AFTER the war (in March 2009), which means Mohammed had no means of transmitting any coordinations to anyone, let alone Israel. According to his lawyer, Mohammed's case is now entering its final stages, and is about three hearings away from the sentence day. The only piece of evidence left to discuss is his chat log with an Israeli guy he met online while working for a computer maintenance platform on the internet. Hamas argues that this contact wasn't just for friendship, and that this guy from Israel is actually a spymaster who recruited Mohammed in Gaza. Now I've read the chat logs, and there's absolutely no indication whatsoever that Mohammed passed valuable information to this guy (Nickname Dan). They show normal chats between two young people on different sides of the conflict and are learning to understand each other's culture and situation. A translation into Arabic of these logs has been made and we're now waiting for the court to admit them as evidence.

Mohammed's current situation is as critical as it can get. Though the news of how his hearings are proceeding sound positive and cheering, I'm very concerned about his safety AFTER the trial, for he received death threats "even if he is found innocent" from members of Hamas' influential Internal Security. It seems some people have a personal grudge against him and I don't want him to be released and then gunned down in some act of false street-justice, because Hamas' records show they don't investigate these incidents.

This is why I'm calling upon you all to campaign not only for Mohammed's release, but his expedient extraction from the Gaza Strip and right to asylum in the UK as a means to protect his life, and to be declared by the British Government as a "prisoner of conscience" and be granted refuge there. He will always be at risk so long as he remains in Gaza, and so long as Hamas reigns there unchecked. I hope that you would reach out to those women and men in high places to ask them aid Mohammed at the most critical point of his young life. If my calculations proved to be true, he might be released shortly before his 26th birthday on December 9th.Please continue to raise awareness of Mohamed's situation as far and wide as you can, with as many leaders and friends as possible, and please help me send him this birthday gift, which would allow him to celebrate further birthdays in freedom and safety.

This is an article that you will probably find as hard to read as I had.

One certain indication that the peace talks must fail is the flood of mail that I have gotten of late from Palestinian peace and dialog groups, and from every Palestinian or other Arab who ever spoke out for peace or sanity. They beg me to remove this or that article or section from a Web site where they are quoted as advocating peace with Israel or coexistence. They say - not for publication - that they are subject to a reign of terror: Emails; Hints; Phone calls in the night; Officials of the '"clean-as-a-whistle" "moderate" "not-like-Arafat" Palestinian National Authority telling them they had better toe the line - or it will be bad for their organization or their personal health.

When a man like Ami Isseroff, who has done more for mutual understanding and peace than many a government institution, writes this, you should take it seriously. It is beyond sad.

Not that I've ever considered Glenn Beck to be a brightest bulb on the TV ceiling, but in this case he got it straight: Rick Sanchez is so dumb that if ever a competition for the dumbest person will be held, he is a dead cert to take the second place.

To prevent the inevitable question: cause he is too dumb to take the first place, you know...

04 September 2010

Remember Thomas Friedman? That august voice of voices coming from the uber-august NYT? The one that writes books, editorials, knows it all and is the paragon of all that is good in the modern journalism? The one that has more Pulitzers than money (or is it the other way around, it's hard to know in this case)?

Anyway, that Tom Friedman that rains brimstone and sulfur on the lowly bloggers who, in his opinion, crawl in "Internet disinformation sewers". And, like, totally loses self-control in the process...

So here comes a great blogger* who can teach Tom a lot about integrity, about respect to others (and, accidentally, about self-respect too) and shows in a superb post Friedman's false history how a journalist must NOT behave - that's re disinformation. He also shows that Tom, as a journalist, should go and stick his head... but you better go and read that post. It's a doozy, I promise.

The secret services must become more transparent if they are to halt the spread of damaging conspiracy theories and increase trust in the Government, claims a leading think tank.

Yep. That's a grand idea. Somehow it seems to be strangely (but not too strangely) fitting the general direction of the Political Correctness movement.

I would also recommend to rename the Secret Service into Public Service. Let the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions manage it in a transparent way, with daily reports to Indie. Or, maybe, Minister for Women and Equality could take it over, having in mind to achieve equal representation of British women in the service.

As for the "leading think tank": someone must make sure to keep at least a window open there. Cause, you know, "transparent secret service" is surely an oxymoron. And what is an oxymoron if not a result of having some morons in a room lacking oxygen?

I don't know, people. I have read that online manifesto and I have to say that a) every self-respecting Green will agree with it; and b) it's much less inhuman and destructive than, say, the Communist Manifesto. Besides, it calls for salvation of "The Lions, Tigers, Giraffes, Elephants, Froggies, Turtles, Apes, Raccoons, Beetles, Ants, Sharks, Bears, and, of course, the Squirrels." Do you have a personal beef with Froggies? Or Squirrels? Go ahead, tell me.

And even I, being Green only in spots and at random times, cannot disagree with this:

You MUST KNOW the human population is behind all the pollution and problems in the world...

01 September 2010

A suicidal man jumped to a seemingly certain death from a 40-story* Upper West Side rooftop yesterday -- but miraculously survived when he landed on a sports car, police said. Tom Magill, 22, suffered just a broken leg, a shattered ankle and a collapsed lung after his 10:44 a.m. leap from atop the West End Towers on West End Avenue at 63rd Street.

"I can't believe this. My car saved his life," said Guy McCormack, 40, a worker at a nearby construction site who had borrowed the 2008 red Dodge Charger from his wife.

This is one car crash that ended well, I would say. Besides being a best PR job for American car industry. Here is the Charger after the encounter:

I don't think anyone wants to see the other guy...

(*) Knowing this peculiar American habit with # 13, I guess it's 39th story only.

Ghada Karmi, a nasty propagandist, one of many in the Guardian's service, excelled in her article A Middle East peace that wreaks havoc. The lede of the article speaks for the rest of it: "With the odds stacked so strongly in Israel's favour, Palestinians rightly view the US talks with dread". Palestinians, at least the ones from Hamas, listen carefully to Ms Karmi. And act on her missives without delay.

The four were two couples – one aged 25 and the other 40. One of the women was pregnant. According to eyewitness reports, the terrorists succeeded in hitting the passengers in their initial fire but then approached the car and shot them occupants at close range.

Being what they are (namely Hamas) they are quite proud of this achievement:

A Hamas spokesman in Gaza, Sami Abu Zuhri, said the Islamist group praises the attack and considers it a natural response to "the crimes of occupation."

Yes, it's Hamas' natural and traditional response to a possibility (remote as it was to start with) of peace that could wreck havoc. Of which havoc Ms Karmi is so afraid.

But it's no good to speak out in the heat of the moment. Ms Karmi will undoubtedly answer that, as "academic and writer" she is against all violence and will indignantly reject any insinuations to the contrary. After all, what she deals with is mere words. Some innocent adjustments to the history - an omission or five here, a slight change there, and voila: another building block in the Palestinian skyscraper of national mythology. Like this:

When in the 1979 Camp David negotiations Egypt sought to give the Palestinians of the West Bank and Gaza a basis for a future independent state, Israel refused.

Do you want more of it? Read the whole article, it's fuller of such tweaks of reality than a stray dog is full of ticks. No professional fisking required.